Tokyo wins right to host 2020 Games

2020: The Olympic Games in 2020 are returning
to Tokyo over half a century after they last hosted the Games in 1964.

IOC members gathered in Buenos Aires,
Argentina, opted for the Japanese capital for the Olympic and Paralympic Games ahead of Istanbul in Turkey.

The third city in the running, Madrid, was
eliminated in the first round of voting on a tie-break with Istanbul. There were 97 votes in the second round in total,
with Tokyo receiving 60 votes to Istanbul's 36. There was one abstention.

Tokyo was seen as a safe bet by the IOC with
Istanbul next door to the civil war in Syria and also hampered by protests at
home and a string of positive drug tests amongst its athletes this year.

And Madrid was disadvantaged by the economic
woes in Spain.

Tokyo’s only negative was the Fukushima
nuclear plant and the fear of radiation following a leak at the plant early
this week.

But the Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe came
to Buenos Aires to assure the IOC members that Fukushima “poses no problem
whatsoever”.

In the final presentation by the bid cities
he told the delegates“the contaminated water has been isolated to a 3km radius
(of the plant). It is a fact that Japan’s standards for food and water are
stringent. There are no health related problems now or in the future”.

“Tokyo
is the safest city in the world, now and in 2020. Some may have concerns but
the situation is under control, it will never do any damage to Tokyo”.

Tokyo is promising an Athletes Village with
spectacular views of the city. They have planned a “very compact Games with all
venues within an 8km radius of the Athlete’s Village. Transport will work
perfectly and we will have a very good Olympic route for athletes and
officials.”

The 2020 bid plan makes heavy use of the legacy from those
Games, using venues from the 1964 Olympics.

A new national stadium will be built for the 2019
Rugby World Cup on the site of the stadium for the 1964 Games. The new arena
will host the opening and closing ceremonies, as well as athletics.

A total of 33 venues will be used, 28 within an
8-kilometer radius from the Olympic Village.

Venues are in two zones in Tokyo (the Heritage and Tokyo Bay
zones), five clusters, and further divided into six precincts. Eleven new
venues will be built.

Tokyo’s OCOG budget is projected to be slightly
more than $3 billion when the Olympics take place, with a non-OCOG budget of
$4.9 billion.

Istanbul has now bid to host the Games on 5
occasions without success. Likewise Madrid has tried and failed three times.

Tokyo 2020 will mean Australian Olympic fans
will have two consecutive Games in a similar time zone with Pyeongchang in
Korea hosting the 2018 Winter Olympics.

In less than 24 hours at the IOC Session in
Buenos Aires the additional sport for 2020 will be voted on with
baseball/softball, squash and wrestling in contention.

Over 100 Indigenous runners participated in the 2015 Indigenous Marathon Project's Deadly Fun Run Championships in Uluru this morning to celebrate the 30 year anniversary of the handing back of world famous landmark to its traditional owners.

June 23 is celebrated around the world as the birth of the modern Olympic Games. For this year's Olympic Day Australian athletes visited schools, got active and took to social media to celebrate the Olympics.

The AOC is a non-government, not-for-profit organisation, committed to the development of youth and sport. It is our responsibility to select, send and fund Australian Teams to the Olympic Games.

This is achieved by the support of our sponsors, contributions from the Australian Olympic Foundation (AOF), fundraising at corporate events and the backing of State Governments who donate to our Olympic Team Appeal.

The Australian Olympic Committee thanks all of our partners for their generous support of the Olympic athletes.